


My Dearest Companions

by MisbegottenBrouhaha



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: this is pretty feelsy guys not gonna lie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 01:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4501926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisbegottenBrouhaha/pseuds/MisbegottenBrouhaha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ten was about to regenerate, he managed to stave it off long enough to visit his old companions. We saw some of his visits, but what of the others?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Susan

The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS and stepped out into the cool autumn air. As he shut the door behind him, a gentle breeze blew the red and gold leaves of nearby trees through the cemetery before him. In the cold, stark modernity of the 22nd Century, this piece of land on a hill above London was a nice change of pace. As he walked forward, battered red Converse crunching over the dry leaves, the tenth incarnation of the last Time Lord sighed.

He felt the energy from his impending regeneration course through him and fought to keep it down. He was aware that he didn't have much time to remain in this form, but also knew that he wouldn't be long here. His goal was to slip in and out before she got here. It was the anniversary of David Campbell's death, and he hadn't seen Susan since his eighth incarnation, and he felt a great deal of guilt about not returning sooner. He wasn't even sure that she was still alive.

It's funny, he thought, you'd think that as the last of my race I'd want to see if my own granddaughter was still alive. Especially, he winced guiltily, as I was the one who wiped out all the rest. Still pondering this, he spotted the gravestone he was looking for. 'David Campbell' read the name carved into the smooth and polished black stone. The Doctor felt a great sense of relief flow through him when he noticed that there was no companion for David's tombstone. She's still alive, then. I'll have to be even quicker, now.

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a dark pink rose. He'd read somewhere long ago that on Earth dark pink was the colour of rose that you gave to someone when you meant 'Thank you'. He put his hands into the pockets of his suit pants and bowed his head, silently thinking the man lying below him for loving his granddaughter as he had.

He then turned and walked briskly back to the TARDIS. As he opened the door, he turned and looked back, sadly. He knew that this was the last time he would see this sight with these eyes, and wanted to take it all in. As he did so, he saw a figure approaching the cemetery, head down toward the ground. He hurriedly entered the TARDIS, shut the door, and walked over to one of the view screens set into the central console. He poked at a few buttons and then peered into it. The last Time Lord smiled sadly at what he saw therein, and rapidly flipped the switches to engage the dematerialisation of the TARDIS.

As the oh-so-familiar sound of the TARDIS parking brake sounded through the air, Susan Foreman made her way up to the hill to the cemetery where her beloved husband lay. She walked with her head down, thinking of everything that had happened since she left Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS so many years before.

She topped the hill and froze, jolting her head upward. She looked around in surprise, hoping against hope that she would see the beautiful blue box that belonged to the madman who floated through time and space, the box whose name she had shortened so long ago. Her head and face both fell again, though, as she saw nothing. Susan continued into the cemetery, winding her way through the gravestones to David's, cursing her imagination for providing her with false hope.

Her eyes opened wide, though, when she saw something at the foot of the tombstone. No one ever came up here anymore, well, no one but her. She took the final few steps to the grave and knelt down, staring at the rose in wonder. Then she saw it; a blue ribbon tied around the stem.

She looked up with tears in her eyes and smiled, knowing that she really had heard her grandfather's TARDIS. As she stood in that breezy cemetery so high above the city, the rose took her back in time to a day long before. On this day, as a youngling newly arrived on Earth, she had begged her grandfather to take her to Kensington Gardens. They had gone through the whole thing, and as they were leaving, the old man had grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward a grouping of what, she soon learned, were roses.

Smiling as he did so, the Doctor pulled one from the bush, stripped it of thorns, and tucked it behind her ear. 'Do you see these flowers, Susan? Do you know what they are called?' 'The sign says they are called roses, Grandfather. Why?' The Doctor smiled and began to lead her back toward the exit. 'Grandfather?' Susan asked, confused. 'Why do you ask?' The Doctor took her hand and looked into her eyes. 'Your name, the one given to you when you were born, is Arkytior. It is High Gallifreyan for a flower the people of Earth call "rose."'


	2. Ian and Barbara

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> fair warning, I am American, so the vernacular may be a bit off; however, I do so love to study languages, so if I've made a mistake, please tell me so I can improve my understanding

The Doctor stepped out of his TARDIS into a classroom that he hadn't entered for over 50 Earth years. Coal Hill Secondary School was quiet in the way that only after-hours education centres can be. He paused; the room called up memories that threatened to overwhelm him. No, he thought, making his way to the door. I don't have time for that anymore.

He stepped out of the classroom and headed down the hall toward the meeting room he knew the Chairman of the Governors and his wife would be in. The room had two doors: one closed, the other half open. He could hear the once-familiar and still-dear voices of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright from the hall and felt a twinge in both his hearts as he caught glimpses of them moving about the room, getting their things together.

'I understand that we need teachers with experience, Ian, but all the ones who have experience and actually want the job will be retiring with five years, at best.' 'I know, Barbara,' Ian sighed. 'But that young girl just doesn't have any proof that she's what we need. She's much too young; and besides, she has such an odd name...what was it? Clancy? Owen?' 'Clara Oswald, silly. Are you losing your memory, Darling?' Barbara smiled. 'Anyway, I wasn't much older when I started teaching, and I did rather well, didn't I?'

As Ian sputtered out reassurances and 'of course, my dears', the man standing in the hall felt an odd sense of deja vu when he heard the young teacher's name. He tilted his head and squinted, trying to recall where he'd heard the name, but if felt like he was trying to keep hold of wet soap that just insisted on slipping from his grasping fingers.

Just as the Doctor felt himself getting a grip on a memory, there was a crash behind him. He whirled around with his usual flare, then felt a bit dizzy. Not yet, not yet. A janitor was kneeling on the floor picking up all the bags of trash that had fallen onto the floor after he ran his cart into the wall, causing the loud noise. The Doctor moved to help him, and heard the young man muttering to himself. 'Good goin' there Damo, right good goin'. First day on the bleedin' job and yer gonna get yerself the boot. Great bleedin' job.'

As the Doctor finished helping the janitor, Damo, apparently, pick up the bags, receiving a blushing and hurried 'ta, bruv', he heard his former assistants come out into the hall and move his way. Damo scurried off quickly, so as not to get in trouble.

As the Doctor turned toward the classroom with the TARDIS, he heard Ian and Barbara continuing to discuss whether or not to hire this girl Clara. '...she was riding a motorbike, for Heaven's sake, Barbara!' 'That doesn't make her a bad per-.' Barbara trailed off as they came even with the Doctor. While they had never seen him in this form, there was just something familiar about him.

'Oh, don't mind me. Just nipping off home now. Things to see, places to do, and all that.' He said in his more manic tone, smiling broadly at the two ex-teachers. 'G-good evening.' Ian and his wife replied, looking slightly confused as to why he was heading further into the school.

'Oh, just a piece of advice from someone who's known many teachers in his time,' the Doctor stopped and turned his head back toward them as he reached the entrance to his classroom. 'Young ladies whose names end in "A-R-A" make excellent instructors.' He winked, and stepped into the classroom which held his magical blue box.

Ian and Barbara looked at one another and shrugged, continuing on toward the exit. They resumed muttering, this time about the strange man. Suddenly, as the man's words registered, they stopped and looked at one another, shocked. 'No,' Ian gasped. 'It couldn't be,' Barbara replied, equally as breathless. Then they both turned and ran back to the classroom he had entered.

When they reached it, broad smiles on both their faces, Ian wrenched the door open...just in time for them to hear that familiar and beloved sound face once more...

**Author's Note:**

> originally on ff.net, but I'm bringing them all over here


End file.
